As you may or may not be aware Birmingham Updates (BU) started during the riots of 2011 and I (Luke Addis) co-founded Updates Media (UM) in 2015. Since then it has grown to become the most engaged news website in the region and a partner supported business.
This year started by hiring a very important person named Oli Hills. Oli has taken UM by the horns (more on that later) with the upmost respect and together we’ve made changes internally and externally.
Our company structure is always improving to make sure we excel in creating engaging and factual news updates for Birmingham and beyond.
The second full time hire of the year was Steph KO. She is an absolute knock out (pun intended) and ensures the back end of Updates Media ticks along nicely. Steph also curates the fastest growing email newsletter in the region.
Like I said we’ve grown a lot this year. Here are a few things we’ve done:
- Rebranded with help from our amazing team at RBH.
- Set up an email newsletter.
- Signed partnership deals with John Lewis, Birmingham Museums Trust and many more.
Partnership deals is one way Updates Media generates revenue. All deals are signed with one agreement in place – they must work for us, the brand and most of all our audience. Thank you so much to everyone we’ve partnered with this year – It has been an absolute joy to work with you.
- Produced the most exciting lifestyle product the city has ever seen – MyBull allows you to get discounts at venues across the city.
MyBull has been a hugely successful launch for UM following my concept idea and thanks to Oli’s magical operational work, and of course to everyone who has purchased one or more.
All this development hasn’t been easy but it has been exciting to see something I started on my own in 2011 grow to what it is today.
Our audience is the most challenging aspect of running of media company because without you guys reading this we’d be dead. Every update that is posted has our audience at the forefront – the aim is to inform, entertain and be honest.
Delivering factually correct information is my number one promise to all of you and has been since day one, but we all make mistakes and I’ll always apologise for any mistakes we make.
Thank you so much for following, sharing, commenting, liking and retweeting content that has been produced by us for you.
I also want to say a huge thank you to my sources of information and everyone at West Midlands Police, West Midlands Fire Service, West Midlands Ambulance Service, Birmingham City Council and Government Communication Service for trusting me and sharing information with me so I’m able to deliver it to our audience 365 days of the year.
Thank you to my co-founder and friend Dave Maclean, MD Oli, FD Stuart Kay, Steph, Sally, Danielle, and everyone who plays a special part in Updates Media. I couldn’t do it without you and I’m looking forward to even more challenges next year.
I wish you all a wonderful 2018 and hope all your dreams come true.
Thank you very much
Luke 🙂
Luke Addis – Editor In Chief of Birmingham Updates and co-founder of Updates Media.
